Simon,
A porro, of course! No surprise there, being a known porromaniac.
I'm a fair weather birder, for the most part, I do like to get out in the winter, and my porro focusers do stiffen up, and I do have to transition them from warm to cold and back again to avoid internal fogging, but most of the birding I do is in warmer weather - snowing right now, 26* F, and wind gusts up to 40 mph. Polar bear birding anyone?
A WP/FP bin of either prism type with a smooth turning focuser would be helpful for the winter, but is optional. If I really want WP/FP, I can always buy an affordable roof such as a Hawke or ZR ED to fill in during the winter months since they would be seldom used.
Why porro? The SEs and EIIs are still the "best bang for the buck" and the 3-D and depth perception beat anything I've seen in comparable quality roofs. The view is more natural than the compressed image I see in most roofs, and I also tend to see more CA in roofs. I have to go down to 7x or 6x to get as relaxed and natural image in a roof.
Having large hands, I prefer the ergonomics of a porro. Can't beat those "dog legs" for their "real estate".
I'm happy to finally see a high quality porro in the new Geovid rangefinder, but disappointed that Leica licensed the Perger porro patent and not Nikon or Bushnell, so they could "spread the wealth" and bring this new design and internal focus porro down to earth for those of us who really can't afford to pay $2,995 (and are not just saying we can't afford them like some cheapskates
.
Alas, most of the bins offered today, particularly in terms of quality optics, are of the roof design. So I might end up like you, collecting old porros, as I once did. Audubon, Octarem, Nikon WFs, Zephyrs, etc. because I'm just not a roofie. The only roof I ever wanted to take home with me was an 8x32 EL, and I spent all of 10 minutes with it (while its owner watched nervously), not long enough to evaluate some of the criticisms I've read in various reviews. But even from the quick look, it was the closest view to a comparable sized porro that I've tried, and the ergonomics fit me as well as my porros.
I don't rule out a roof in the future, but I'd take a high quality porro with updated coatings any day over the "latest and greatest" roof.
If only there were a company that wolud be willing to adjust the surface of those old porros to accommodate updated coatings, and didn't charge a fortune for that service, the world would be my oyster.
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